we are londoners (part I)

(c) london as seen by ugo's eyes

arty party w/e (3rd)

after a morning spent on the telephone with the banks complaining about the shit service and claiming compensation, i met emily in central london and we visited two galleries: the photographic portrait prize 2006 @ the national portrait gallery, which featured amongst others a photo by a young artist, Ljudmilla socci, who is from jesi (AN), a city 20mins away from my hometown (nice surprise!) and an art space in the middle of soho which was funded in the sixties and temporarily reopened under its original name: indica (riflemakers becomes indica). archive art-works by francois morellet, baschet brothers, carlos cruz diez and yoko ono were nostalgically exhibited and this gallery, which is in fact a house, was assidously attended by john lennon and paul mccarthy. talking of yoko ono, i am really intrigued by her last cd, a collection of diverse sounds and rhytms commissioned to an eclectic mix of artists. its title is: yes, i am a witch.

(c) ljudmilla socci

a pub with live blues music entertained us for the following two hours, until hungry and a bit tipsy (we had a few drinks at empty stomach) we opted for a japanese restaurant next to the pub. i had row tuna with rice and emi had what i call *japanese ravioli* with pork. with a full tommy, beer in my head and no intention to go back to my empty flat (steve was sleeping at friends'), i accepted emi's invite to go to brixton to meet some of her friends before heading to a house party. we went back to her place at around 5am. the journey home was smooth and quite quick (we changed two nite buses), but at that point i was really tired. the morning after emi cooked me pancake filled with honey and banana. yummy. the chinese new-year celebrations were on that afternoon, but i was too knackered to attend them. so, i regretfully stayed at home without dragons, red lanterns and lucky cakes.

that nite we had chinese take-away (our contribution to the event) and watched the king - a disturbing film about a disturbed man (interpreted by gael garcia bernal - i can't get enough). two elements of this film made me feel uncomfoprtable: the american religious fanaticism which was emphasised in the film through the dialogues and the cinematic shots and the symphatetic feeling of the viewer (me) for the king's ambiguous behaviour - or maybe i fell again into gael's trap once again?!

horror w/e btw west- & east- end (1st)

it's never too late to chronicle the lovely london w/e spent with ary at the beginning of this month.

i was right on time to pick her up at waterloo station on friday 2 february. she was coming from brussels where her team was awarded a EU prize for energy saving. well done them! after a quick dinner based on beef wellington which arianna's skeptical palate feared it was cat (the finest english meat mistaken for a pet?!?), i took her to an intimate theatre in covent garden to watch the chilly woman in black. this time it was me who was skeptical at the thought that a musical can be scary. we soon discovered that it was not a musical as we thought: it was instead a theatre piece (still aimed to mass entertainment) performed by two and a half actors, half being the woman in black whose frightening apparitions freaked a rather young audience out: uncontained screams of young ladies were the real terror of this experience! after the show, we realised that a school had filled the gallery, which partly justified the emotional over-reaction.

on saturday, after a good sleep, we went for an organic lunch in the neighbouring queen's park. we had soup, salad, rustic bread, pear juice and hand-made jam. all very healthy and pleasant. the sun was coming through the cafe's window kissing the orchids which were adorning the only table of the venue. we then joined steve for his historical birth-tour around the historical pubs of london. the first one, and my favourite, was Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. the change of pubs and people coming and going at different times of the day conveyed diversity to this fun day. we ended our tour with jack the ripper walk, which took place between the old whitechapel and the city. although most of the places were completely different from 1888 and not very atmospheric (it is for this reason the From Hell was filmed in Prague), our guide was very graphyc in her descriptions and pointed out in several occasions that most of the jack the ripper films portrayed a romanticised (and so unreal) vision of prostitutes and the quarter. the tour ended in a narrow street, which is possibly the only one vaguely resembling the area in its original status. this is why every time i had passed through this alley i could not avoid associating it with jack. the guide gave us the option to look at a photo of his last victim to conclude the walk. most of us eagerly tried to discern the bones and flesh in the picture. creepy! but we were a cheerful group of 20 happy to carry on the celebrations in the dirty dicks pub as if nothing had been narrated to us. by that time we were all tired, cold and hungry, so a full pint helped us restore our body temperature. [p.s. it will be only the night after, in bed, when i was reflecting on the guide's words and got really weary...] that night, however, proceeded undisturbed at the kick bar in shroedritch where we played some table football (strange place: it resembles a traditional italian or possibly brasilian bar and is located in the middle of the trendiest part of london: all drugs, mod-style and rock 'n roll). at 4am we all realised that we were in need of food and decided to go... for a restaurant meal. all the vietnamese places we fancied were unusually closed, so we headed to brick lane for a (bad) curry (at that time of the night, or i should say morning, what do you expect?!).

the morning after hangover and tiredeness did not prevent ary and i to check out spitafield. so, armed with good (shopping) willing, we went back to the east-end. ary was positively impressed by the market and we spent a few good hours browsing the stalls before going back home.

dinner was offered by richard: a traditional english roast (lush) followed by a succesfull game at risk (i won!).

that night was a grim night though, not only haunted by the first serial killer in history but also by the sad thought that ary was leaving us the morning after.

photo-biography of a woman

i would like to talk through the fantastic photos i present to you today, which so badly attracted and damaged me. every time i admire them it is like to be inside the life of this troubled soul, an example of accomplished complicity and antagonism between the photographer, madly in love with his woman, and the model. he is seiichi furuya. she is christine.

unfortunately, i do not have time now, the sofa and my man are waiting for me. so, i leave you to their fruition, which is an experience going beyond the visual enjoyment or pain.

yoga-ing in the states

in view of my first travel to the states (yes, it seems i am finally making it), today i bought a yoga magazine including all the yoga centres in the world, with the aim to try at least one in the cities i am going to visit. but i didn't notice that the magazine itself was american. i mainly bought it as a directory for all the yoga-related stuff, but this is now of little use for me. however, some articles look interesting and made me realise how big yoga is in the states.

i want to learn a meaningful thing today.
i want to teach it.
i want to help someone today. better if they do not know about it.
i want to be merciful because this is the way to make the world merciful.

i love my yoga.

january was a loooong month

as the title of this posts reads, i felt january a long and eventful month. on the other hand, february is flying away.

january highlights are: all the cool shows i saw; all the yoga i injected into my body and brain; all the celebrity big brother i absorbed in such a distorted way that at some point i thought i was in the house myself feeling angry at all the abuse going on and relieved by its *happy-ending*. what kept me watching it relentelessly till the end was shilpa shetty - a bolliwood actress, wise and gorgeous (i may open a shilpa fun club).

the first month of the year saw also some personal crisis - which i tried to alleviate with some retail therapy: i bought a glorified chav track-suit; a pair of elegant Pedro Garcia male-style shoes; a paul & joe's sister top; a handmade hat adorned by a knitted flower; a pre-mama dress in Spitafield; and last an Indian scarf for two quids.

a wide photographic exhibition and two morning cinema sessions (so bohemian!) concluded an active first month of the year.

(c) boris mikhailov, as seen at the Barbican

Eternal Lovers

lovers from neolhitic period found in mantova, italy...

How jewellery can be disturbing

by Margaux Lange

tutta colpa dell'inflazione

i like spending my money, so you are free to call me “consumerist”, in every sense. in fact, i do not only consume money, i also consume all my purchases to the bones, fully experience any travel or cultural experience i buy and consume my, and sometimes other's, energies too. but for sure i do not spend money i do not have, by posing certain limits to my wallet. however, I am not sure how I am going to cope with this increasingly aggressive city/country because, whilst the economy is going up and up, my finances will go down and down. the enlightened minds remind me that “air travel is too cheap as it is, and is fucking up the environment” and that the rising inflation rate is a good sign of the fruitful times. but i, emotional thinker, wonder: is £10 more of taxes going to discourage travellers to use the plane when train fares in this country are prohibitive? and should not my salary increase accordingly, to catch up the running inflation? travelling by public transports in london has become more expensive than flying on a concorde. since I have been in London it has gone up of 250% (!): a single course on the tube is now £4. however, londoners do not express a word of dissent, they accept the boost, pay it, get into debts and keep going. yesterday i went to see billy elliott (exhilarant! review to follow), and the mining strike in the ‘80s is the only social protest I have (indirectly) witnessed in this country. unions here have no longer power. i want the revolution. but fidel, the last real revolutionary, is very ill. although he was strict, intollerant towards liberalism and a stubborn head, I will miss him.

big brother phenomenon

lofty and i have assiduously been watching celebrity big brother since its opening. i have always despised this programme for being boring, obnoxious and an unscientific social study lacking of any holistic approach. moreover, i have always considered it fake because all orchestrated by a clever big brother called (art) director more interested in the popularity rating than in applying its rules thoroughly.

however, this time the director has been tougher, merciless and stricter than in the past. this has sparked off my curiosity to see how series-b-celebrities (they are all quite obscure v.i.p.s or meteorites) coped with the stress and the pressure of bb’s tasks, privations and requests. for the first time, i have realised that it would not be that easy to live in bb house, not just because of cohabitation problems, of which I am an expert having shared flats for nearly 10 years, but also for practical reasons such as living in an unhealthy air conditioned environment with smoking people, sharing a bedroom with all sorts of night-birds, etc.

i have been so absorbed by this programme that i have been feeling like i am part of the house: i know, for example, that i would connect with germaine for his calm approach, shilpa for her brightness and innate elegance, dick for his sarcasm and cleo for her sensibility and that i would be annoyed by joe’s apathy, jack’s lack of personality, jade’s arrogance and danielle’s naivety.

i am not sure if i will push myself to give my vote on thursday, but i will certainly give my nominations and reasons for them.

am i sad?

sunday best

"Later in his life when gandhi was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:
'Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.'"

sunday morning, on the way to notting hill, we bumped into several people, in their best clothes, on the way to church. this triggered a series of images of me going to mass with my mum or friends all dressed up in my sunday best, before meeting up in the nearby park for a post-mass chat and before popping to the news agent to get my giornalino and go home for a sunday lunch usually based on hand-made lasagnas…

that morning i saw a young boy with his father stepping into the church and felt not only nostalgic, but also in need of some kind of fulfilling order in my life. going to work every morning gives some structure to my daily life, and yoga three times a week helps nourish my soul, but i feel the need also to nourish my faith. that’s why I have promised to myself to visit the local church every now and then (every sunday would be asking too much) also as a way to getting to see/know my neighboring community (new year resolution no.2).

despite my continuing and profound religiosity and faith in god, i have developed a personal spirituality and stopped going to church long time ago for various reasons. although my priest would strongly disagree with this view and label me heretical, i consider myself catholic only because it's part of my upbringing, which is fine since my belief is that all religions have a the same (conventional) origin and all ultimately flow into the same divinity. over the last few years, i have in fact coupled up my christian principles with some of the buddhist dogmas (which i worship every time i practice yoga and try to apply to my everyday life), so that i dare to compare my personal system of beliefs to gandhi's.

back into shape

this week my granted new year resolution to go back to my diet and exercise regime has kicked off - at last! i went to yoga not less than three times, and yeasterday i went to empty my mind with an hour of swimming, whilst steve and rich were having a squash match. i had the pool all for myself most of the time and i just kept concentrating on the breath and maintaining the same rhytm for just under an hour. i basically applied the yoga "rules" to swimming, and it worked: although i am not a fish and am pretty rubbish at coordinating movements and breath in water, this time i managed to stay underwater longer than in surface.

afterwards, we went to meet maga and her brother in borough market and had a nice stroll throughout south bank, which terminated with a visit to the russian festival in trafalgar sq - we got there just in time to watch a rock/ethno/folk/contemporary band: pelageya. After a drink in an old pub right at the feet of the suggestive big ben, we headed home for a nap before visiting emily for her birthday do at her place. she lives on the opposite side of the city, which, in terms of distances, is like to say she lives in another town, but, to my surprise, we discovered that a magic nite bus goes all the way home from near her house. at 3.25am, in a mere 25 minutes, we got home! fab.

the morning after the alarm clock rang at 9am on the dot. no, it was not by mistake. we had to wake up and jump on a bus to be at the gate cinema by 11am for the preview of notes on a scandal. it was a sunny day, notting hill is a glorious part of london, the viewing was free and steve kept shouting in my ears to get up and get ready - all good incentives to roll out of bed, take a quick shower, drink a black espresso and put on some comfy clothes, sunglasses and go. [film review to follow.]

a gold star* to me for accomplishing everything i planned to do this weekend. as michela commented: go, supersilvia.

back on track

everybody's gone and everybody got home safe and sound. it has been an intense christmas full of family outings and reunions. everything went well and no hemicranias visited my head until a nasty one which started on Saturday after my farewell to my parents and carried on through all Sunday. All the tension accumulated after a week of work and sightseeing found its way out through my achilles' heel.

anyway, it was good to have my parents here and to see keven, lindsey, juliette and ilsa. steve was very sweet in taking some time off work and join his family at the airport to say goodbye and hand over a last-minute present to his brother: two pictures of the girls that he took last time they were here with a manual reflex camera, developed himself during his photographic course and get them hand-framed.

the only downside of these past holidays is that it now seems ages since i have been home in september. this made me think a lot about my life in uk, and i kind of resolved that it is time for me to start thinking of my moving-back. for the time being, this means translating my italian CV, preparing my italian cover letter and keeping my eyes open to grab any (rare) opportunity it may arise. i have also decided that i won't exclude any cities of central and north italy in my research. i know, i know, you have already heard me saying the same many times and i am still here. but i have got to try and try again, have i not.

having said that, things are going well in london. thanks to my mum's care, my house is nice and clean, and yesterday also the stairs were professionally cleaned. hurrah! all our friends are now back and some of them are arranging getting-togethers and things. steve has promised me to reduce his time in front of telly and devote more time to dialogue and other activities. i consider this a great improvement in our co-habitation. we are also arranging his b'day tour on the 4th of february, including historical london walks followed by a historical pubs' tour. on another positive note, my cousin phoned me up today with the good news that she successfully passed her first uni exam (contemporary history), and i was very proud of her and v. glad that she is really into her study. last, but not least, my best friend arianna (or aribu) has decided to come to visit us for Steve's b'day. it will be her third visit (if we exclude our trip to london just before i moved here). she wanted to experience a musical this time, so i booked the chilling woman in black. whuuuu!

so, after a bad week, i am fully back into my working routine and i have interesting, although complex and risky, projects to look forward (including a potential book launch in fiesole!) and loads of holidays to take this year (my plan is to spend a couple of w/es visiting european cities, the summer in italy at my parents' holiday house and to take a two-week holiday in the states). and i still complain? back to work now.

groovy

the most fascinating couple from hollywood is back: BFI is devoting this month a retrospective to bogey and bacall's films. excellent choice!

Godt Nytår!

Gung hay fat choy Sun nien fai lok Xin nian yu kuai Godt Nytår Gelukkig nieuwjaar Aide shoma mobarak Bonne année Aith-bhliain Fe Nhaise Dhuit Gutes Neues Jahr Hauoli Makahiki Hou Shanah tovah Nyob zoo xyoo tshiab elamat Tahun Baru

Buon Anno Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu Godt Nyttår Maligayang Bagong Taon Szczesliwego Nowego roku Feliz ano novo La Multi Ani S Novym Godom Feliz Año Nuevo Wilujeng Tahun Baru Gott Nytt År Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

this year has not started in the best way... nothing bad happened, as the photo testimonies we had a pleasant and civilised dinner, followed by a well deserved big sleep and a hangover-free walk in the park with steve, lindsey, keven and a coffee. In the evening we had a lovely and cheap meal at the local restaurant with my parents. going back to work on the 2nd was a trauma. after the second day i am still not able to adjust myself to the working rythms. plus, i have not resolved my *2007 resolutions* yet. next week things should get clearer.

[I won't be able to post much between now and the w/e, so i have borrowed a review from a friend.]

Dad's celebrities look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

My celebrities' look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

http://www.myheritage.com

lofty's celebrities' look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

more surprises

in the post today two tickets for this performance.


presents to be lived are to me the best!
thanks, dan.

sivvy & steve